Frank Lampard has insisted that Everton’s players do care as they continue to find themselves deep in a relegation battle. The Blues are looking to pick themselves back up off the canvas having been humbled against Tottenham Hotspur at the beginning of the week, losing 5-0 in north London.
Frank Lampard said: “I don’t want to build up players for no reason. But what I do see – and I’m generalising – is a group of lads who do care and who do want to do as well as they can for themselves and for the club. There is no doubt about that. Sometimes players show it that in different ways, whether that is their style or whether they think they care enough but actually the proactive bit on the training pitch and on the pitch needs more. I’m not disputing that there are some players who need to train a little bit more with the bit between their teeth to then deliver that little bit more on the pitch. If we get that I don’t think we’re 17th. We’re 17th for a reason – before I got here. So we need to understand that I am not painting a pretty picture of a load of lads who care and it’s all going to be fine, I’m painting a picture that I know that they care but proactively what are they going to do about it.”
Lampard has been forced to utilise multiple systems, formations and combinations of personnel over his short time at Goodison Park so far. Because of that, when asked over the best way to set this side up, the manager chose to focus on the strong performance against Man City as a base. Comparing that with the result against Spurs, the boss believes that he might have take a slightly different stance when they go on their travels.
Frank Lampard added: “I think if you look at an example of the Man City game where we probably defended I don’t know 10 or 15 metres deeper than we normally do but some of that is because City will do that to you but for a good part of it which we worked on before the game was that we couldn’t drop too deep which gives them all the space to play between the lines in our own half. So the players nailed it, they nailed it as much as you can against Man City in my opinion. So to then you go to Tottenham and have a similar game plan in effect – although slightly different because of the opposition – and they didn’t do it. I’m not putting the blame on the players for that because I have to take that one myself. But games can be different. The Goodison effect can mean there are things we have to use. It has for whatever reason you want to state allowed us to get closer [to opponents] to make more contact to be a bit more aggressive in our game. So if we have to take a a slightly different stance when we go away from home that is something I will have to look at going forward because there are certain parts of the team when you come in and look at and I have to say ‘I’ve got to protect that area of the team.’ That’s something I have seen very quickly and that is my job.”
Lampard had earlier spoken about the cut-throat world of social media in the modern climate, and admitted that his players will have to deal with those criticisms. However, he will not be tempted to make wholesale changes to his side based on the reactions to one defeat.
Frank Lampard added: “Fortunately I do not go on social media but the players do. Nothing is going to change that. If they are going to look at it they are going to have to deal with it and that is not easy. I remember I used to read the marks out of ten in the newspapers when I was playing for England and it was not nice at all. Now it is on a different level to that. I can’t decide on wholesale changes on the back of one performance against Tottenham. That performance should be a jolt for everybody. Some players will have to go again and put that right, and others who come in after performing on the training need to show why they are in the team. Tottenham is not nice. It is a horrible game. But we might have lost 1-0 and gone into Wolves thinking everything is ok, saying we did well against City and Tottenham and got no points. Same outcome. We need to start again.”
